


Wishing on Dead Stars

by batyalewbel



Series: Call On Your Ghosts [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Emotional Support, Gen, Kylo Ren is such a creep, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 05:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9163639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batyalewbel/pseuds/batyalewbel
Summary: When she woke with a start everything was metal and gray and she was strapped to a chair. She could see the masked man in the corner...watching her. On the opposite side of the room there was a woman.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry I changed the title :/ the title I had picked worked better for the Finn chapter

The last thing Rey remembered was facing a masked man in the forest. He paralyzed her without even _touching her._ She had wondered, ‘ _is this the Force_?’

“The droid...where is it?” he had asked softly while placing his lightsaber against her neck. She was forced to sit there and do _nothing._ He _reached into her mind_. It felt horrible, it felt like an assault. She was utterly helpless and drowning in it. It faded as he whispered, “the map...you've seen it.”

Suddenly he was stepping away but she _still couldn't move._ And then all was darkness.

When she woke with a start everything was metal and gray and she was strapped to a chair. She could see the masked man in the corner...watching her. On the opposite side of the room there was a woman.

She found her gaze darting between them. The man was clearly there...whatever he was.

The woman appeared somehow insubstantial...like a ghost. She was small, Rey distantly wondered if she stood taller in comparison. She had dark hair roughly pulled back and her eyes were bright. Rey wondered if the stress was making her see things. She wanted to speak to the ghost but the man was definitely there and she would not show weakness in front of him. Instead, she addressed her first question to him.

“Where am I?”

“You're my guest,” he replied with what sounded like a smile and she bit back a comment about how he probably had very few guests. From the corner of her eye, she could see the woman sneer a little at his words.

“Where are the others?” She asked instead

“You mean the murderers, traitors and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear that I have no idea,” he said and it was a relief but she was afraid to take her eyes off him, afraid of what he would do if she wasn't watching. But there was anger too, that this man would bring her here and chain her up this way.

“You still want to kill me,” he observed.

“That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask,” she spat and the woman was still standing there, poised like she was ready to fight. Like she could jump into this fray at any moment.

Meanwhile the man seemed to consider her, then he reached up and removed the mask. It surprised her to know that the man looked to be around her age. Maybe a few years older but not by much. He was pale with a long face and shoulder length black hair.

“Tell me about the droid,” he said and she stared at him for a moment before going into a rote recitation,

“He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator--” From the corner of her eye she could see the woman's shoulders shake with suppressed laughter. It was interrupted when the man got to his feet. He towered over her and he seemed to enjoy it even as he bridled with fury.

“He's carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from archives of the Empire. We need the last piece. And somehow, you convinced the droid to show it to you. You. A scavenger --”

Rey shrank back in her seat, she was trapped which made her helpless to this man and she _hated_ how her heart was pounding in her chest. The woman was suddenly by her side, her eyes flashing, but the man continued,

“You know I can take whatever I want.” Rey wished she could get farther away. Wished she wasn’t tied down in this place. Wished she was anywhere else, far away. The woman reached out and gripped her arm. Her touch was as insubstantial as the rest of her, distant but somehow warm.

“ _You can do this_ ” she said and Rey turned to stare at her for a moment before the man had her immobilized and everything was darkness and pain as he ripped her apart from the inside out. She could still feel the woman's hand. That far away warmth and light. She latched on to that feeling as the man continued to probe inside her mind. Like she was speaking from miles away, Rey could hear the woman's voice

“ _The Force is with you and you are one with the Force._ ”

She didn't really know what that meant. Maz Kanata had spoken of the Force for a moment but Rey didn’t understand. Meanwhile, the man before her was talking about her loneliness and fear. He talked of Han Solo the man who felt like the father she never had. All these words hit her like shrapnel and she could do nothing but listen.

At the same time, Rey felt two hands on her arm and a voice repeating in her ear,

 _“The Force is with you and you are one with the Force._ _The Force is with you and you are one with the Force.”_ It felt like an encouragement she didn’t understand. But the warmth and the words still gave her something. Enough something for her to squeeze out through gritted teeth.

“Get out of my head,” and he was still talking about the map, but this was about more than the map. This was about who gave him the right to do this to another person? This was about Finn being so scared of the First Order, and the fear in Han's eyes when they talked about the Rebellion, and BB-8 losing his master, and Maz Kanata's kind eyes.

“I'm not giving you anything,” she said and she could almost hear the woman smile beside her.

“ _You can do this, the Force is with you and you are one with the Force._ ”

That was when she pushed back against the presence in her mind. She pushed back with everything in her and she felt the woman's hands tighten on her arm.

 _“You can do this._ ” She pushed still harder and suddenly she was inside _his mind._ His name was Kylo Ren...but his real name was Ben Solo. She was lost in the sea of his mind and the words came out of her unbidden as she saw them.

“... You... you're afraid... that you will never be as strong as... _Darth Vader_ !” And suddenly everything withdrew. She was back in her own body with no one in her mind except herself. The man, _Kylo Ren,_ was staring at her with something like terror. Without a word he swept out of the room in a way that felt like fleeing. The woman beside her let out a small giggle.

“ _That was amazing!_ ” she crowed as she stared at Rey with those fire bright eyes.

“Who are you?” Rey asked and the woman stepped back a little bit, looking suddenly nervous.

“Oh...yes, my name is Jyn Erso.” Rey stared at her for a long moment.

“And are you really here? Are you real?” she asked and Jyn shrugged a little before she stepped around the chair and took a seat by the door.

“ _I suppose some might say real is relative, but I am here..._ ” she said and Rey nodded a little.

“Then what are you?” Rey asked and it was Jyn's turn to nod and consider.

“ _A friend of mine would say we're spirits, but I'm not really sure. People don't usually see us...you're tapped into the Force stronger than most are, that's probably helps you see...”_ she trailed off and Rey had to bite back on her incredulity.

“You're a ghost,” she said because she wanted to fully understand and Jyn shrugged again.

“ _There are stranger things in the galaxy than ghosts, learn that now and it will do you a lot of good,_ ” she said it seriously but there was some humor buried in there.

“So why are you here?” Rey asked and Jyn took a long quiet moment to consider.

“ _I mean...I'm_ always _here...I've been watching the Rebellion ever since I died and...I came here to help I suppose…”_ she ended with something like a sigh and a distant thoughtful look.

“What can you do to help? Can you get me out of here?” Rey jerked her wrists against the restraints and Jyn looked unbearably sad.

“ _Unfortunately, I can't affect anything in the physical world...I...felt your distress and I...I knew you could beat him,_ ” she began uncertain, but she ended with a grin that looked almost savage.

“You _knew_?”

“ _Like I said, you're tapped into it in a way I've almost never seen before! And what you did to that idiotic man was incredible!”_ Jyn was grinning, moving her hands expressively, Rey couldn't help but smile back a little.

“ _I could never do anything like that when I was alive._ ” she continued, her enthusiasm undimmed.

“And _I just knew...and I can't explain how I knew...but I just knew you needed somebody to tell you can do it.”_ Jyn finished and Rey stared at her feeling both flattered and flummoxed in equal measures. She took a minute to think over what the woman said and finally she asked,

“Can I ask...how did you die?”

“ _Did you ever hear stories about the first Death Star that Luke Skywalker destroyed?_ ” she asked and Rey nodded. _Everybody_ knew the legends and the stories. Now she even knew they were true.

“ _My friends and I stole the Death Star plans that showed the Rebellion how to destroy the Death Star and we died doing it,_ ” she said the words simply, these were facts there was hardly any emotion in there. Rey didn't know what to say in the face of it. Just then the door swung open and a Storm Trooper stepped in to stand guard.

Jyn jumped to her feet staring between Rey and the Storm Trooper.

“ _Use your gifts. Make him free you from this cell,_ ” she said speaking low and fast. Rey stared at her and shook her head whispering the softest 'No, I can't.” Jyn stared back before moving beside her chair and kneeling to look her in the eyes.

“ _You can do this. The Force is with you and you are one with the Force._ ”

“What does that even mean?” Rey whispered and Jyn smiled a little.

“ _A very skilled friend of mine used to say that. He wasn't a Jedi but he did some amazing things.”_ Her eyes were alight again and Rey shook her head. Jyn ignored that and rested a spectral hand on her arm again, letting the warmth radiate outwards.

“ _Rey, you can do this._ ”

And so with that warmth, Rey focused on the Storm Trooper. Tried to reach into his mind and bend it to her will.

“You will remove these restraints and leave the cell with the door open,” she said.

“What did you say?” the Trooper asked and Rey could feel her resolve waver as she repeated,

“You will remove these restraints and leave the cell with the door open.” The Trooper stepped away from the door and Rey could somehow feel Jyn holding her breath too. The trooper came to stand beside the chair and say,

“I'll tighten those restraints, scavenger _scum_.” Rey didn't look away from the Trooper, her breath coming fast. From behind her she heard a soft and fervent,

“ _I_ know _you can do this._ ” Rey took a deep breath, pulling as much oxygen into her lungs as she could and when she breathed out she let it all blow away. The ghosts in the room, the Storm Trooper, the horrifying sensation of being held captive, the fear, the anger. She let it all out through her lungs. Then she looked up at that Storm Trooper visor with a sense of calm and certainty and said,

“You will remove these restraints and leave the cell with the door open.”

After that she didn't move, she didn't breathe. The Trooper straightened and the room seemed to still.

“I will remove these restraints and leave the cell door open,” she could hardly believe it, she stared when the trooper released her from the chair. As he walked away she added,

“And you'll drop your weapon,”

“And I'll drop my weapon.” The Trooper repeated letting his gun clatter to the ground. Only then could she breathe again, a smile lighting up her features.

“I did it!” she whispered turning to Jyn with bright eyes.

But, Jyn was gone. Gone, like she had never even existed. For a moment, Rey wondered if she had imagined the woman but she shook her head. Whatever Jyn was, Rey had never been imaginative enough to invent such things. Now that she was free she could gather her wits about her and find a way out of this. She could find her way back to whatever comes next. She picked up the blaster and raced down the hallway.

\----

_Jyn had to laugh when she thought to make the Trooper leave his weapon. “Smart girl,” she murmured. “Very smart girl.” That's when Cassian appears behind her._

_“And you were just out for a stroll I suppose?” he asks with a wry smile. Jyn shakes her head at him._

_“She just needed a little push is all.” Cassian steps up beside her so they can both watch Rey navigating down the long winding hallway of the Star Destroyer, undetected._

_“I knew she could do it,” Jyn adds softer this time. Cassian smiles down at her, this time its all warmth and ease from the long years spent in each others company._

_“She reminds me of you,” Cassian says and Jyn shakes her head._

_“She's better than I was, she's going to_ do better. _She'll have more time to get it right than we did.” Cassian nods behind her. They both watch quietly until Rey turns a corner and slips out of sight._

_“Come on then,” Cassian says extending a hand out to her,“Let's go.” She takes his hand with a smile and as they go back out into the galaxy, someone whose with the Force might hear the friendly words passed between them._

_“Bodhi's taken an interest as well,” Cassian says_

_“Has he?” she asks_

_“In that Storm Trooper.”_

_“Wonders never cease.”_

_“No, they never do.”_

**Author's Note:**

> So the second in my series of FEELS. I like the idea that the Rogue One crew has all those years to work through their issues and get to bestow that knowledge on the next generation.  
> I considered just making this the next chapter of the other fic but it felt so different from Poe's I decided to make them a connected series like this. Also yeah in my head Poe's not Force sensitive so he couldn't _really_ talk to Cassian but obviously Rey is so...yeah! Talking is cool!
> 
> The title is a twist on a line from a Nikita Gill quote.


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